The Age Of Innocence
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: High school had turned into hell for her with Harper losing her friends and every student isolating themselves from her... can she rebound from this and emerge stronger on the other side?


_**A/N: Story is graphic in content, reader discretion is advised.**_

_**October 13th 2004, Paris, France…**_

_16 year old Harper was walking through a park after a long and exhausting day, unwilling to bring herself to go home after a bad fight with Sly the previous night… and tripped over a rock, catching herself from falling._

_"This day just needs to end already!" Harper muttered._

_But as she stopped to pick up her dropped backpack, she let out a scream after she was grabbed and her scream was cut off by a masked man clamping his hand over her mouth and her biting him before she stomped on his foot and grabbed the blue and red bag before she ran for it, screaming for help even as she was tripped up, turned onto her back and pinned down and thrashing around as the attacker ripped the lower half of her school blouse up._

_"Stay still, you teasing and taunting harlot!" The attacker yelled._

_"Stop! Get off me, GET OFF ME!" Harper screamed before she was sliced with a knife._

_Her screams were answered when a man in his late 20s snatched the masked attacker off of her and slammed him into the tree, Harper closing her eyes in fright as the man continued to attack the masked attacker who had been targeting the teenager._

_"Thought you were gonna have your way with her despite her kicking and screaming, huh?! I don't think so, you sick bastard! You go anywhere near her or any young girl or woman again, I will hunt you down and rip your damn spine out! Are we clear?!" The man threatened._

_"We're clear…" The masked attacker responded in fear for his life, the younger man throwing him into traffic and letting a car run him over._

_He turned to Harper in a gentle manner and crouched down to the scared girl, who opened her eyes._

_"He won't be hurting you anymore, little one…" The man reassured her as he pressed a washcloth to the wound under her right eye. "What's your name?" He asked._

_"Harper Eckert…" Harper responded in a trembling tone._

_"You're gonna be okay, Harper. I'm Brayden Lavery… I'm gonna get you to a hospital." Brayden explained before he helped Harper up and to his car after handing her backpack to her._

_Hospital Lariboisière Ap-Hp was visible by its illuminated sign and the 28 year old parked the car and helped the injured 16 year old into the ER, Harper leaning against Brayden as her being pulled down had caused her to injure her left ankle._

_While she was being treated and had explained her story to the police, who wrote it down as well as writing down what Brayden had witnessed for verification, the nurse called Jenny, who rushed down to the hospital and immediately hugged her niece._

_"Where are Sly, Paul Jr and Uncle Paul?" Harper questioned after they had let go, the wound under her eye stitched up._

_"Sly's out with friends and Paul got held up at work." Jenny explained before turning to Brayden. "Thank you for protecting my niece." She responded with a kind smile._

_"It's no problem. I saw what was going on, I wasn't going to let that coward hurt her." Brayden replied before he lightly rubbed Harper's right shoulder._

_The two hugged when Jenny went to go call the others, Brayden lightly brushing Harper's tears away._

_"You don't have to worry anymore, you're safe." Brayden responded softly, lightly cradling Harper's face in his hands._

_"Until I go back to school. It was one of my teachers, I caught him with another student. I rejected his advances towards me." Harper confessed, Brayden pulling her into his arms and the two hugging._

_Having overheard that, Jenny knew she had to call International School of Paris in the morning as she knew which teacher it was._

_And she wasn't gonna let this go on any longer as Harper had only been trying to protect her childhood friend Juliette…_

**Present time**_**, November 1st 2004…**_

Harper unlocked her locker and saw _**'Lying Slut!' **_spray painted on the inside of the door after opening it… and grabbed her books, putting them in her new black, white and red backpack as her blue one had been stolen.

She heard snickering and saw Juliette… but it wasn't just her now former friend.

Stood near Juliette were the blonde's snobbish friends, Eloise and Vivienne… and having had enough, Harper took Sly's old baseball and threw it.

Eloise yelled in pain, the raven haired girl putting her hands to her now bleeding nose as Harper picked up the baseball and put it in her own backpack after wiping the blood off.

"Tu peux enfin avoir le travail de nez que tu voulais, salope coincée!" Harper shouted furiously.

"Harper, c'est quoi ce bordel?!" Juliette yelled.

"C'est toi qui écarte les jambes pour l'un des professeurs, Juliette! Comment est-il juste que je sois victime d'intimidation pour ta stupidité?!" Harper retorted.

Vivienne guided Eloise away to the nurses office, the brunette and raven haired girls plotting revenge… and Harper and Juliette's confrontation escalated to a physical one that spilled outside of the school.

A familiar silver Corvette screeched to a stop and Harper and Juliette were pulled apart, Brayden helping Harper to the car before they got into the car and left.

"I don't ever want to go back there." Harper responded.

"I don't blame ya one bit. The bullying is getting worse and you shouldn't have to go through that, no one should." Brayden replied, handing a tissue to Harper and her brushing her tears away.

"I was just trying to protect her by reporting him… she doesn't realise that it's gonna screw her up for the rest of her life, he took advantage of her and who knows how many other female students." Harper responded, Brayden lightly rubbing her left shoulder.

They found themselves at his apartment as she was not ready to face her family, Paul having yelled at her after the last fight she got into at school despite her explaining the truth that she was defending herself from a boy who had pulled her blouse up.

_'He's not himself anymore after what happened to Susan.' _Harper thought as Brayden grabbed some peroxide and cotton, cleaning Harper's scraped up right hand and bandaging it after closing the peroxide and throwing away the used cotton.

He called Jenny and explained what had happened and then handed the phone to Harper.

"I'll be over there in a bit with some things. With the angry mood Paul's in, you don't need more stress." Jenny explained.

"I take it Susan's not doing any better…" Harper responded.

"I'm sorry, kiddo, I wish the news was better." Jenny replied.

Harper had a feeling that the damage done to Susan was irreversible.


End file.
